THE House of Representatives either needs a legal counsel or should hire a new one. How indeed can anyone explain the introduction of House Legislative Initiative 13-6? Authored by Rep. Pete Castro, this proposed constitutional amendment would require that only a certain group of U.S. citizens can run for public office in this U.S. commonwealth. Did any lawyer review and certify its legal sufficiency?
Unbelievable.
The horrible bigots of the Deep South, at least, had to “invent” the poll tax and enact other Jim Crow legislation to prevent their non-white but fellow U.S. citizens from exercising their rights as Americans.
What is Castro’s excuse? That he, like ALL Americans residing in insular areas, can’t vote for president? That despite their legendary sagacity, the American Founding Fathers failed to anticipate in 1787 that 200 years down the road there would be U.S. citizens living in insular areas who can’t participate in presidential elections because the Constitution they drafted allows STATES, and not individual voters, to choose the nation’s chief executive? The U.S. Constitution, however, can be amended, but there appears to be no cure for narrow-mindedness.
H.L.I. 13-6, in any case, should be immediately rejected by the standing committee assigned to review it. Let’s save the good people of the CNMI from further embarrassment and pretend that this unspeakable proposal was never introduced in the Legislature.
